WASHINGTON: The cancellation of a key U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) hunger survey will obscure the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to nutrition programmes, according to anti-hunger advocates.
Food security experts described the USDA’s Household Food Security report as the most comprehensive data source available for assessing government programme efficacy.
The USDA announced on Saturday it was ending the annual report, labelling it redundant, costly, and politicised.
A USDA statement claimed better and more timely data sets are now available for tracking food security.
Megan Lott, deputy director for the Healthy Eating Research programme at Duke University, called the redundancy claim misleading.
“To say it’s duplicative is a little misleading because this is the most comprehensive source we have,” Lott said.
The cancelled report is the only data set providing both state and national statistics on food insecurity.
President Donald Trump’s recent spending bill included significant cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
These cuts encompass expanded work requirements for recipients and new cost-sharing demands on state governments.
Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger, said tracking the consequences of these cuts will now be extremely difficult.
“There’s no way to determine what that impact will look like if the government isn’t tracking the data,” Mitchell said.
Georgia Machell of the National WIC Association warned the data gap will also hinder evaluation of other federal nutrition programmes.
The lack of data will affect assessments of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment on the advocates’ concerns.
Approximately 13.5% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point during 2023.
U.S. hunger rates have increased since 2021 due to rising food costs and the expiration of pandemic-era aid.
Food banks across the country are reportedly struggling to meet the heightened demand for assistance. – Reuters